Selectively releasable engageable separable-leaf hinge



March 11, 1969 s. BETSO 3,431,591

SELQQLIYELY RELEASABLE ENGAGEABLE SEPARABLE-LEAF HINGE Filed June 1967Sheet of INVENTOR J'ZZ-PA EA/ 55 I50 March 11, 1969 s BETSO 3,431,591

SELECTIVELY RELEASAELE ENGAGEABLE SEPARABLE-LEAF HINGE Filed June 5,1957 Sheet 3 of I v L O k ix m 1 'f; w

0 F/a/a O 224 b 1 'm F/6.//

INVENTOR SI'EP/vf V 35/50 ATTORNEY United States Patent ()fice 3,431,591Patented Mar. 11, 1969 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The inventionis a separable hinge unit having a pair of hinge leaves one having alongits hingeably engaging side a sleeve having an engaging pintle rigidlyaffixed in it and with its part usually exposed to be swingably in apintle-bearing on the other leaf, and selectively operable locking meanswhich enable having the leaves in locked inter-engaged relation for useof the closure.

This invention is that of a selectively releasable engageableseparable-leaf hinge (or hinge unit) suitable, for example, for use inmounting doors or other swingable closures on various articles offurniture such as cabinets or other compartments or structures needingclosing with selectively separable hinged closures. The particularseparable-leaf hinge of the invention allows a pivotedly attached dooror other closure to be mounted or disengaged and removed at ones optionat at least one predetermined angular position of the closure relativeto the opening to be closed by it.

More specifically, the invention is that of a separable-leaf hinge (orhinge unit) having (a) a pair of ordinary hinge leaves one of which hasalong what is its ordinarily hingeably engaging side a sleeve having (b)a joining or engaging pintle rigidly affixed in it and with the usualpart of it exposed to be swingably mounted in a pintle-bearing on theother leaf, and (c) selectively operable locking means which allow oneat his option to have the leaves in locked inter-engaged relation to usethe closure or alternatively to disengage the leaves to permit removingthe closure. The locking means includes an arcuate securing segmentassociated with either the pintle-bearing sleeve or thepintle-receiving-bearing of one of the leaves and positioned oppositeto, so as to act in registry with, a segment-engaging notch in asleeveless portion of the hingeably engaging side of the second leaf.

separable-leaf hinges described before this invention allow a partattached to one of the hinge leaves to be removed, for example, when theleaves are in one or another different relative angular positions.However, some of these earlier hinges or hinge units are impracticablycomplicated in that they require costly, exactly machined or shapedknuckles, shoulders or various inter-engaging elements. Others areunreliable in their operation, resulting in undesirable blocking of theattached structural parts when they are to be disengaged for removalfrom the other parts. Still others have limitedly effective unusualstructures which require leaf outlines considerably different from thesubstantially rectangular or triangular ordinary hinge-leaf shapes witha pintle-encircling sleeve along part of the usual hingeably engagingside of one leaf and a pintle bearing in the other.

The restrictions, limitations and drawbacks of the earlierseparable-leaf hinges are overcome and avoided by the separable-leafhinge of this invention, a highly significant feature of which latterhinge is that it has exactly the same overall outline as that of anordinary hinge of no special construction.

Another feature of the hinge of the invention is that it very readilyenables disengaging the leaves for removing a door or other closure andreplacing them when desired, and all without experiencing any difficultyin operation, for example, when the closure is positioned to locate thehinge leaves in substantially parallel face to face superposed position.

Yet another feature of the hinge of the invention is that it can beproduced by the usual automatic equipment used in making an ordinary twoleaf hinge, with no extensive changes in tooling and at relativelylittle more cost other than for the tooling changes.

Still another feature of the hinge of the invention is that itsseparable-leaf hinge similarly can be provided with slight modificationin its arcuate securing segment to enable engaging the leaves when theyare at more than one relative position including open extended relativeposition of the leaves.

Considered broadly, the selectively inseparable and engageable and thendisengageable separable-leaf hinge of the invention includes (a) a pairof selectively hingeably engageable and disengageable hinge leaves, eachone having a pintle-encircling sleeve along part of its hingeablyengaging side (i.e. the side nearer the other leaf when both arehingeably engaged), one of the sleeves being thepintle-receivin-g-bearing sleeve and the other the pintle-carryingsleeve, each sleeve being integral with its respective leaf and offsetalong its hinged side from its midpoint in the direction opposite thatin which the other sleeve is offset from its hinged side midpoint of itsleaf (whereby the outer end of each sleeve is nearer the oppositelyspaced away side end of its respective leaf) so that both sleeves thenappear like a continuous cylinder between the opposed hinged sides ofboth leaves when they are hingeably engaged; (b) a pintle held in partfixedly anchored in the bore of the pintle-carrying sleeve and havingits protruding remaining engaging part extending parallel to and spacedfrom the hinged side of its leaf sufiicient to fit far enough into thebore of the bearing sleeve to enable adequately hingeably engaging bothleaves; and (c) hingeably-lockably selectively engageable anddisengageable locking means having (i) a locking notch in the sleevelesspart of the hinged side of one leaf, and (ii) an arcuate notch-engagingsegment integrally extending from the op posing sleeve-bearing part ofthe hinged side of the second leaf and located opposite to where thenotch would appear in the first leaf (when both are hingeably engaged)so as to enable being placed in register with the notch and with theouter peripheral surface of the segment for at least part of its arcuatelength protruding radially outwardly past the corresponding orneighboring part of the outer peripheral surface of its associatedsleeve.

The length, and extent of protrusion, of the protruding part of thissegment is sufficient, based on the thickness of the leaf and thissegment (e.g. one-sixteenth or threethirty-seconds of an inch), toenable the outer side Wall to miss that protruding part of the arcuatesegment when the leaves are in at least one angular position relative toone another, and thereby to enable inserting the pintle into the bore ofthe bearing sleeve to inter-engage the leaves. Then, adjusting theleaves to another relative angular position results in moving theprortuding part of the arcuate segment between both side walls of theengaging notch thereby to lock the leaves into inseparable engagement.

The notch-engaging arcuate segment can be formed of such shape andlength to enable the leaves to be engaged or disengaged selectively ineither a single relative angular position or for more flexible utilityin at least one other relative angular position as more fully describedin the later detailed description.

Other features of the hinge of the invention can be seen from the laterdetailed description of the illustrative, but not to be taken aslimiting, embodiment of the invention shown in the accompanying drawing,wherein FIG. 1 is a plan view of the two separated hinge leavesconstituting a hinge unit for the hinge of this invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded isomeric view of the separated leaves of the hingeunit of FIG. 1 shown in a different relative angular position and aboveone another;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged top view of the hinge leaf having thepintle-carrying sleeve and associated with it an arcuate securingsegment as a projection with an eccentric portion extending similarlyfrom the same part of the one side of the leaf;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged end view of the hinge leaf shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a rear plan view of the hinge with its leaves inter-locked andextending away from one another and in the same plane;

FIG. 6 is a front view of the hinge of FIG. 5 with its leavesinter-engaged and closed in superposed face to face relation; the arrowindicating that the leaves can be disengaged by moving the front leafdownward relative to the rear leaf remaining stationary;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to that of FIG. 5 but showing the leaves fromthe rear in a position past their full extended position (i.e. rotatedmore than 180 degrees from their FIG. 5 relationship); and

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary sectional view of the hinge leaf shown in FIGS.3 and 4, taken along line 8-8 of FIG. 1 and viewed in the direction ofthe arrows;

FIG. 9 is a plan view of a strip of steel showing the changessuccessively made in it in six consecutive steps in producing a hingeleaf with a divided sleeve including an arcuate notch-engaging segment;

FIG. 10 is a cross-section along line 10-10 of FIG. 9 looking in thedirection of the arrow, to show the initial cutting of the strip orsegment which later is to become the arcuate notch-engaging segment;

FIG. 11 is a cross-section along the line 1111 of FIG. 9, showing thetwo separated parts to be formed into a sleeve with the strip for thearcuate segment between them, all jointly given a preliminary turn orbend; and

FIG. 12 is another such section along line 1212 of FIG. 9, showing thetwo separated parts of the sleeve in finished turned form with theintermediate strip still to be further formed into the arcuate segment.

Referring to the drawing, and initially primarily to FIG. 1, thecomplete hinge unit 10 includes its separate hinge leaves 20 and 30. Theplanar surfaces of these leaves are adapted to be attached, for example,to a door and its frame (not shown) in conventional manner, e.g. byscrews or other attaching means driven through apertures or holes 21, 31to aflix the respective leaves of the hinge t0 the door and its frame,i.e. of a cabinet (or other piece of furniture or other article) onwhich the hinge unit is to be used. Hinge leaf 20 in this casepreferably is secured to the door which is to be pivotably removablymounted on the cabinet, while leaf 30 then is attached to the frame andso is to remain stationary.

Offset upwardly (as seen in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4-7) from the midpoint of thehingeably engaging side of leaf 20 (that is, its side which would benearest leaf 30 when both leaves are hingeably inter-engaged) is thepintlecarrying sleeve, in this embodiment advantageously consisting ofits two axially spaced apart sleeve-parts 22 and 23. Pintle 24 isfixedly fittedly secured within the coaxi lly alined bores of sleeveparts 22 and 23, with its lower or hingeably engaging protruding portionextending downwardly spaced away from the lower and so-called sleevelesspart of the hingeably engaging side of leaf 20.

Advantageously, arcuate notch-engaging finger or segment 25 projectsoutwardly from hinge leaf 20 intermediate its pintle-holdingsleeve-parts 22 and 23 and formed outwardly eccentric with respect tothem and pintle 24.

Pintle-bearing 34 with its open-ended longitudinal bore 36 extendsoutwardl from hinge leaf 30, for receiving pintle 24 when leaves 20 and30 are inter-engaged by a sliding movement parallel to their adjacentlyopposite edges to insert the free end of pintle 24 into bore 36.

The selectively engageable and disengageable locking means for theseparable-leaf hinge of the invention includes the arcuatenotch-engaging segment 25 and the arcuate segment-engaging recess ornotch 35 beneficially rectangular to conform to the cross-section ofsegment 25 normal to its length and advantageously only sufiicientlylarger than that cross-section to avoid undesirable play when thesegment 25 is engaged in the notch 35. The latter is spaced apart frompintle-bearing 34 longitudinally along the sleeveless part of that sideof leaf 30 so as to be able to receive arcuate segment 25 of leaf 20when the leaves are in certain relative angular positions whereinsegment 25 does not prevent proper or full reception of pintle 24 inbore 36 of bearing 34.

For example, when one attempts to slide hinge leaf 20 from abovedownwardly into hingeable engagement with leaf 30 by inserting pintle 24into the open upper end of bearing 34, the relative horizontal angularposition of leaf 20 to leaf 30 by presenting the corresponding relativeposition between arcuate segment 25 and the upper peripheral parts ofleaf 30 will determine whether the leaves can be hingeably engaged ornot. When the protruding part of segment 25 abuts against those upperperipheral portions (as along the upper edge of leaf 30 and near theupper end of notch 35, pintle 24 cannot be fully and properly insertedinto bore 36 of bearing 34.

Leaf 20 then should be rotated sufficiently respective to the(ordinarily stationary) leaf 30 until (a) the outer or free end ofarcuate segment 25 misses the flat surface of leaf 30 whereby that upperedge of its hingeable side can pass through the gap between the outerend of segment 25 and the planar surface of leaf 30, or alternatively(b) the inner arcuate end of segment 25 (where there is no orinsignificantly little protrusion of it) faces the upper peripheralportion of leaf 30, whereby segment 25 misses notch 35, so that theprotruding part of pintle 24 can be fully inserted into the bore ofbearing 34.

Then, with the free part of pintle 24 fullyand properly inserted inbearing 34, the fully available pivotal or hinge movement between bothleaves is possible, and they cannot be disengaged so long as segment 25protrudes into notch 35 sufficiently to contact its upper wall 37.

To disengage leaf 20 or any door on which it is mounted from leaf 30(which may be mounted on a frame of, for example, a cabinet), the doorshould be swung to rotate leaf 20 to a position where (a) the gapbetween the outer end of segment 25 and the flat plane of leaf 20, or(b) the inner insufficiently protruding or anchoring end of segment 25will not touch the upper edge 37 of notch 35, enables segment 25 toclear the recess to enable leaf 20 to be raised along that innerhingeable edge of leaf 30 until pintle 24 is withdrawn fully from bore36 and is free of bearing 34.

Thus, the curvature of segment 25 advantageously is such that (a) itsouter end falls short of making it a complete circle and so enablesinter-engagement or separation of the leaves when they are in a face toface substantially parallel position, e.g. as shown in FIG. 6, or (b)alterna tively the protrusion of segment 25 is from insignificantlysmall to none at all so as to miss upper wall 37 of notch 35 when theleaves are in openly extended alined relationship at from about to about210 degrees to one another (e.g., as seen in FIG. 7). That gives themaker of the cabinet or other articles of furniture more than one choiceas to how to set up the door relative to the frame or opening to beclosed by the doors and how to set up the hinged leaves to permitremoving the door when the hinge leaves are in a desired one of theavailable positions.

Arcuate segments 25 need not be confined to its presently apparentlymore effective location between sleeve parts 22 and 23 as shown in thedrawings. It may be located elsewhere in either direction along thepintle-carrying sleeve, or at an end of it (so that the rest of thepintlecarrying sleeve constitutes a single part), so long as recess ornotch 35 correspondingly is relocated along the sleeveless part of thehinge-engageable side of leaf 30.

Alternatively, arcuate notch-engaging segment 25 can be omitted from thepintle-carrying sleeve and instead similarly be made a part ofpintle-bearing 34. In that case recess or notch 35 will need to be madein a corresponding location along the sleeveless part of thehingeengaging side of leaf to be able to be opposite segment for thelatter to be able to be engaged in registry with the notch 35. Whilenone of these alternate variations is shown in the drawings, each ofthem readily is understandable to a person of ordinary skill in the artfrom the detailed description of the illustrated embodiment.

Whichever of leaves 20 or is to be the one having a sleeve with anarcuate notch-engaging segment associated with it, the production ofthat particular leaf is explained best in relation to FIGS. 9 through12. The broken lines in FIG. 9 divide the metal (e.g. steel) strip fromwhich the particular leaf is to be made into six different sections eachidentified by a different one of the letters A through F and showing thesuccessive state of an individual strip section for a leaf as itprogresses through six consecutive steps in its production.

In each stage the small circles represent the holes for receiving thescrews to attach the finished leaf to the article onto which it is to beused. The large circle represents merely a so-called locating hole asused to assist in properly setting the strip in relation to theparticular operating die which is to work on the step at the specificoperating stage.

Stage A shows the cutout 2-sided section resulting after a double-edgedlancing tool lanced the metal strip to provide piece 25a which is tobecome the arcuate segment 25, and leaving it bent out of the plane ofthe entire strip (as shown in FIG. 10). At the next stage B, piece 25ahas been straightened back into the plane of the metal strip andunnecessary metal was cut away to provide the so-called sleeveless partof the hingeably engageable side of the leaf being produced and anotherportion 23a which is to be formed into sleeve-part 23.

At stage C, removal of the excess metal leaves another portion 22a whichis to become the sleeve-part 22. In stage D an end-turning die gave theouter ends of the three portions 22a, 25a and 23a a preliminary bend.Then at stage E the portions 22a and 23a were bent further by spacedapart dual turning dies to complete the circular bend and provide thesleeve-parts 22 and 23 (as further shown in FIG. 12).

Finally, in stage F a die having a slightly larger radius than that usedin stage E similarly converted the remaining portion 25a into the finalform of arcnate notchengaging segment 25. Thereafter, the finished leafis cut off with or without having its left hand corners rounded.

-If no pintle is inserted in the sleeve-parts 22 and 23 obtained fromstage F, then the leaf obtained can serve as a right hand pintle-bearingleaf with an associated arcuate notch-engaging segment. Otherwise,forcefully fitting a pintle pin into sleeve-parts 22 and 23 of thefinished leaf makes it a so-called left hand pintle-carrying leaf ifleaf 20 of FIG. 1 is called a right hand pintlecarrying leaf.

From the foregoing production description, a person of ordinary skill inthe art would know how to produce a right hand pintle-carrying leaf.Such person of ordinary skill in the art then also would know that byomitting the lancing operation of stage A and changing the outline ofthe die for cutting away the excess metal at stage B to one that alsocan cut out a notch along the sleeveless part of the hingeablyengageable edge, there similarly is produced a leaf with apintle-receiving-bearing and an arcuate segment-engaging notch.

What is claimed is:

1. A selectively inseparably engageable and disengageable separable-leafhinge comprising (a) a pair of selectively hingeably engageable anddisengageable hinge leaves, each leaf having along part of what is itshingeably engaging side a pintle-encircling sleeve, one of said sleevesbeing the pintlereceiving-bearing sleeve, and the other sleeve being thepintle-carrying sleeve, each said sleeve being an integral part of itsrespective hinge leaf and located offset along said hinged side from itsmidpoint in the opposite direction from which the other sleeve is oifsetso that the outer end of the sleeve is near a side end of the leaf andboth sleeves appear like a continuous cylinder between the opposedhinged sides of the two leaves when they are hingeably engaged;

(b) a pintle with its anchored part fixedly held within the bore of thepintle-carrying sleeve and its engaging end spaced away from andextending parallel to the hinged side of its respective leaf a distancesufiicient to enable it to extend into the bore of thepintlereceiving-bearing sleeve to provide adequately hingeableengagement of both leaves; and

(c) hingeably-locka-bly engageable and otherwise disengageable lockingmeans including (i) a notch in the sleeveless part of the hinged side ofone of the leaves, and (ii) integrally extending from the opposingsleeve-bearing part of the hinge side of the second leaf, and oppositeto so as to be able to be placed in registry with said notch in thefirst leaf, an arcuate notch-engaging segment whose outer peripheralsurface for at least part of its arcuate length protrudes radiallyoutwardly beyond the corresponding part of the outer peripheral surfaceof its associated sleeve on said second leaf, the length of said part ofthe arcuate segment protruding outwardly beyond the outer peripheralsurface of the associated sleeve being sufiicient to let the outer sideWall of said notch miss said protruding part of the arcuate segment inat least one relative angular position of the leaves and thereby enableinserting the pintle into the bore of said pintle-receiving-bearingsleeve to interengage the leaves whereby changing the leaves to anotherrelative angular position moves the protruding part of the arcuatesegment between the side walls of the notch to lock the leaves intoinseparable engagement.

2. The hinge as defined in claim 1, wherein the pintle pin can beinserted into said pintle-receivingbearing sleeve to bring the leavesinto engagement and the leaves can be disengaged only when they are in asingle relative angular position.

3. The hinge as defined in claim 1, wherein the pintle pin can beinserted into said pintle-receiving-bearing sleeve to bring the leavesinto engagement and the leaves can be disengaged when they are in any ofa plurality of relative angular positions.

4. The hinge as defined in claim 1, wherein the sleeve in said secondleaf is divided into two axially separated parts and the arcuate segmentis intermediate said separated sleeve parts.

5. The hinge as defined in claim 4, wherein the pintle extends throughsaid separated sleeve parts and the arcuate segment between them and isheld in friction tight engagement within the bore of said sleeve parts.

6. The hinge as defined in claim 1, wherein each of said sleeves isoffset from its respective leaf in such direction that when the hingehas its leaves in their engaged relationship and extending from oneanother in about degree alignment, the hinge can be laid flat on a fiatsurface with the leaves in the said alignment and the sleeves thenappear like a substantially unitary cylinder with the lowest element ofits peripheral surface substantially lying on and touching said flatsurface and with its axis parallel to and spaced upwardly from the planepassing through the upwardly facing surfaces.

of the leaves.

7. The hinge unit is defined in claim 6, wherein the outer end of theradially outwardly protruding part of the arcuate segment terminates ata position to miss the outer wall of the notch when the hinge leaves arein a relative angular position of being face to face and about parallelto one another.

8. The hinge unit as defined in claim 7, wherein the hinge leaves can bebrought into engagement and also UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,683,892 1/1954Gorman 16-176 BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner.

10 D. L. TROUTMAN, Assistant Examiner.

6/1934 Case 16-----171'

